Page 58 of Texting My Valentine

“Are you sure that’s okay?” Monica asks.

“Positive,” I tell her. “Who knows what the freak has got planned? That’s why I’m beefing up security. I’ve already called an ex-patient of mine with links to law enforcement. He’s suggested a private security agency. By the morning, I’ll have full surveillance and security. For all of us.”

Tori gasps. “Isn’t that going to cost?—”

I sit down next to her, taking her hands. I know I should try to be more relaxed with her mother around, but her Valentine's poetryperformance tugged at my heart, and now this vandalism has set my nerves ablaze.

“Don’t worry about the cost. Don’t even mention it. Your safety is all that matters. It’s theonlything, understand? I’m hiring three details: Elliot, you, Tori, and you, Monica. Just until this is over.”

“Thank you,” Tori murmurs. “But what about you?” she exclaims after a moment.

“I can take care of myself.” When Monica yawns, I stand. “Let me show you to your room, Monica.”

“Yes, please. Thank you, Alex.”

“It’s no trouble.”

I lead her through the house. At the bedroom door, Monica says, “You’re the best Valentine my daughter could’ve asked for. Just be patient with her, please?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

When I return to the living room, Tori is pacing.

“Hey, slow down,” I murmur, wrapping my arms around her. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

“It’s not that. I mean, it is. But there’s something else, something I need to confess.”

“Okay…”

“It seems silly. Itissilly.”

“Try me.”

“I’m just going to say it so we can move on. I mean, if you still want to after you learn how crazy I am.”

“You’re not?—”

“I thought Elliot was fake,” she blurts out.

“Huh?”

“There was a part of me – and not a small one – that thought you might’ve made up Elliot and what happened with his mom and your brother.” She says breathlessly. “I thought maybe you were tricking me. Trying to get me into bed. And then, last night, when I told you I was a virgin, you looked so mad…”

“Mad?” I say, dumbfounded. “I was trying to hold myself back.”

I grab her hips, feeling her curviness through the denim.

“I was trying to stop myself from tearing off your clothes, from kissing every voluptuous inch of your body. Do you think it made me want youless? It made me want you more, baby because you’ll be my one. My only.”

When I kiss her, she sinks into it, wrapping her arms around me, her body grinding against mine. But then she stops herself.

“But what about my, you know…”

“Craziness?” I say teasingly.

“Yeah.”

“You’re a complex, tortured person… you’re apoet. I can’t blame you for that. And hell, you saw Elliot. You know he’s real. If anything, it just shows how much you care.”

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